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First POST: Facebook Mobs

The Obama campaign is planning a significant outreach effort targeted at women, the New York Times reported, including "a new Web site that will include links to video testimonials about the health care overhaul signed by Mr. Obama in 2010, including from a former critic who subsequently was found to have breast cancer." The Times also reported that centrist women are becoming disaffected with the Republican party.

The Obama campaign has released a trailer for a 17-minute documentary about the first term titled The Road We've Traveled. The documentary is directed by Davis Guggenheim and narrated by Tom Hanks, and features Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren along with Vice President Joe Biden and former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, among others.

In a New York Times commentary, a Columbia professor says it is important for society to engage with so-called hackers, particularly those expressing an authentic political voice and examine how they can contribute positively to society. As details continue to come out about the arrest of several LulzSec members, experts suggest that the movement has been hurt, although not permanently. Reuters detailed how the hacker "Sabu" worked full nights online for the FBI, while the New York Times focused on his life on a Lower East Side public housing project where he was allegedly involved in some drug sales, made payments with stolen credit cards and prompted many complaints by neighbors. One of the accused hackers who is from Ireland had led a nonprofit group in Galway which develops open-source applications to improve web security.

CQ Roll Call is planning to revamp its website Congress.org so that voters can easily contact their members of Congress about ongoing news stories. According to the Times, the new website was in part motivated when Congress.org was slowed by a surge in traffic during the day of action against SOPA.

Politico reported that politicians are now warning each other against falling victim to another SOPA moment as they consider legislation that could affect large companies like Google or Amazon. "'There's so much fear about a SOPA backlash that it's almost halting progress on anything,' said one tech industry source who's involved in the cybersecurity talks. 'With every Internet and technology issue coming forward, people worry and ask, 'Is this the next SOPA?''"

Hank the Cat, Senate candidate in Virginia, now has more Facebook supporters than Democratic candidate Tim Kaine, but is still behind Republican candidate George Allen. Hank has meanwhile released a new campaign ad praising Hank as a "refreshing voice of change" over the inaction and negative campaigning over the established candidates. At the same time, a new "attack ad" titled the 3pm Phone Call warns against voting for Hank because "he doesn't have thumbs" to answer the phone.

A magistrate judge in San Francisco has denied Ron Paul’s trademark infringement claims against social media “imposters.” The suit was filed against the “NHLiberty4Paul” YouTube account, which had previously released a video that implied former candidate Jon Huntsman was an agent of the Chinese government.

The U.S. Army has warned that geo-tagged Facebook posts could put soldiers' lives at risk.

Top Republican lawmakers are requesting that the Obama administration provide information on government policy on email surveillance of employees at every federal agency. Emails obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act show that the White House was more closely involved than previously reported in seeking the resignation of Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod in 2010.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has put up a virtual firewall to block its members from inappropriately baptizing Holocaust victims.

International Headlines

The Brazilian Justice Ministry said it could launch an official investigation into Google's privacy policy if the company did not provide satisfactory details about how it handles users' personal information within 10 days.

In response to a new law in Finland that allows any citizen to propose a new law, some tech entrepreneurs have created a website called Open Ministry as a platform for citizens to discuss proposals and collect the necessary online signatures. But the Finnish government still needs to implement the online procedures needed to verify citizens' identification.

In Italy, a Facebook page and an app are encouraging citizens to reveal which businesses don't issue receipts to avoid value added taxes, per the New York Times. "The results were surprising," said Edoardo Serra, one of the creators of the app, which has been downloaded 50,000 times since it was introduced last June. However, there are some concerns because the app users are anonymous.

The Modern Poland Foundation is organizing a crowdfunded contest on the future of copyright with Prof. Michael Geist, a copyright specialist, and Piotr Czerski, author of We, the Web Kids, among the judges.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has urged Tajikistan to end a block of Facebook and Russian-language sites in the country which had published material critical of the country's leader.